They Had To Learn That Attitude Somewhere
by ShinyShiny9
Summary: One-shot about a day for the Time Twins, back when they were kids. In which we learn that, for people whose entire power is time, they're oddly bad at punctuality.


**Haaaaaaappy birthday, Skylark! :D Sorry it's a little late. ^_^''**

* * *

"Do you think it's vegetables for lunch again?" said Acronix uneasily.

Vegetables were a topic that weighed very heavily on a six-year-old's mind. Acronix and Krux were still a bit small to pack their own lunches, but they were considering rebellion in the near future. Carrot stir-fry three days in a row was really asking too much.

"Let's not check till we're at school," said Krux. "Maybe not even till lunch. I don't wanna spend my whole day thinking about carrots."

Acronix nodded glumly and watched the dust puffing up around his shoes, glowing in the early morning light. Their mother always sent them off for school early, because the teacher kept complaining that they were late or nearly-late. The twins, however, saw this as extra time to dawdle along the way. There was a creek where they liked to stop and watch dragonflies, or chase frogs and fish.

Their detours were only becoming more fascinating these days, because their time powers were starting to develop in earnest. They never ran out of excuses to practice.

"Watch this, watch this!" Acronix waved from the edge of the brook. He pointed at a dragonfly that was hovering just by the water's edge. Then, with a careful twist of his wrist, he summoned up a shimmering blue globe of time manipulation and tossed it at the dragonfly.

The insect hovered still, probably unaware that anything unusual had happened. Its silvery wings now beat much slower—slow enough to see them moving, rather than just a blur. Krux crept closer, and they both watched in fascination until the blue time bubble wore off.

"Let me try now!" said Krux. He tossed a red bubble at another dragonfly. It froze perfectly still in midair, like a preserved insect in a museum display.

"Ahhh, mine's cooler," scoffed Acronix after a moment. "It still moves. Yours just sits there."

Frustrated, Krux tried a reversal bubble instead, but it turned out a dragonfly moving backwards wasn't all that much more exciting than a dragonfly moving as usual. Acronix scoffed again.

"Still cooler!"

He set to work slowing down another dragonfly. Krux grumbled and stewed for a while, then wandered off to wade in the brook. Noticing a fish swimming by, he quickly engulfed it in a shimmering red time-freeze. Scooping it out of the brook with a fair amount of water still halted around it, he stuffed the whole apparatus down the back of his twin's shirt and let the time-freeze dissolve. Acronix shrieked. Once he'd gotten the fish out, he wanted to throw Krux into the creek right after it. The brewing scuffle was interrupted by the sound of a distant bell. School was almost starting.

"We're gonna be late again!" Scrambling out of the creek, the boys jammed on their shoes and ran back to the dirt road leading to school. Mid-jog, Acronix stuck out his tongue in concentration, summoned up a green aura, and shot ahead in a whirl of dust and whine of displaced time.

"No fair!" Krux shouted after him. "Acroniiiiiiix!"

Groaning, he slowed to a walk for a moment, trying to catch his breath. Seconds later Acronix came swooshing back, grabbed him by the arm, and dragged them both to school in record time.

* * *

They were still slightly late. The teacher frowned as they came stumbling in, their shoes caked with mud from the creek and the dusty road, but said nothing. She pulled them aside for a lecture before recess, neither the first nor the last that they'd hear.

The real trouble started during recess, though. The twins used to have the usual small handful of friends that you'd expect in first grade. Used to. When their powers started to manifest, some kids were warned away by their parents or simply backed off on their own, frightened. Others took to bullying the twins, especially Acronix, whose shier nature made him an easier target. Once the bullying started, whatever friends they still had retreated to a safe distance.

They were okay with playing alone, really. They would spend recess practicing their time powers or taking turns on the swings. Today Acronix had brought a top that he'd received for his last birthday. He wanted to see if speeding up time would make it spin faster and stay up longer, or just go through the same number of spins in a shorter amount of time.

He was happily engaged with that for a while. But the top eventually fell over and rolled away, and before Acronix could grab it someone else did. He looked up to find one of the older girls tossing his top up and down in one hand.

"Can I have that back?" he asked cautiously.

"Ehhh . . . maybe." She held out the toy as if giving it over, but just before Acronix could grasp it, she yanked it back and tossed it over the wall of the schoolyard. Acronix yelped in horror; he knew there was a thick patch of weeds on the other side of that wall, including poison ivy.

"That . . . that was mine . . . " he said plaintively.

"Yeah? What're you gonna do about it?" she scoffed, folding her arms.

Acronix bit his lip. She was more than a head taller than him, and reasonably stocky. His odds looked sketchy. He snuck a glance over to Krux, hoping for backup, only to find his twin being harassed by two boys about his age. More kids were gathering, and none of them exactly looked like they were on their way to help. Not the twins, anyway.

Krux happened to look up too, and his eyes met Acronix's for a moment. Then they narrowed. Nodding slightly down at his hands, Krux pulled up one palm and summoned a small red glimmer of light. Acronix stared for a moment, then grinned eagerly. They'd never tried this before, but their powers were getting pretty strong and well under control. Maybe it was about time.

The taller girl was reaching for one of Acronix's pigtails, and—ohhhhhh, those were scissors. Nope, nope, nope, no thank you ma'am. Without another thought Acronix coated himself in green light and shot away. The girl was left staring at the spot where he used to be, baffled.

"Where did he—"

Acronix abruptly came rocketing back and bowled into her, mowing her to the ground and sending her scissors clattering across the paved schoolyard.

"Did you see that?" cried a nearby kid, pointing to the scuffle Acronix was trying to escape from. Krux, noticing the soup was on, quickly froze one of the two boys shoving at him. With a quick push he knocked the immobilized boy over. The other one yelled angrily and swiped at Krux's head. He actually connected quite solidly. Krux yelped in pain, but managed to focus enough to summon up a time reversal. He rewound past the impact, then took care to dodge this time. The bully stumbled past him and tripped over the other one, who had just started to get up.

Things really started to heat up. Soon it seemed like the entire school was gathering—many of them just to watch the spectacle, but a lot to help attack the twins, too. To their own surprise, they had no problem handling however many kids came at them, even the bigger ones. They froze or slowed whoever ran at them, whisked away from blows or reversed enough to dodge them. Pretty soon they had most of their opponents on the ground, or actually scared to a safe distance.

Laughing breathlessly, Acronix skidded to a stop next to Krux, who high-fived him. This was amazing! Why hadn't they thought of this before?

Some of the bigger kids were regrouping, forming a tight huddle and glowering over at the twins. They seemed to be plotting an all-out stampede, or at least so it seemed to the two overexcited youngsters.

"Let's do ALL of them!" said Acronix eagerly, summoning a blue bubble in one hand and a green bubble in the other. "All at once!"

Krux nodded, grinning as he summoned up both his powers as well. It took a lot of concentration, so much that he had to focus on his hands more than he focused on the bullies. As he tried to enlarge the red and orange bubbles, they responded with a will—almost too much will. Next to him he could see Acronix's eyes growing wide as he also experienced a dizzying transcendental sensation. Their powers suddenly seemed much bigger than their two small bodies—like they'd suddenly been given a glimpse of the universe, and it was a giant sparkling space-colored lake, and they were just dabbling at the edges of it, wading in the waves.

The riptide was savage, though. More than they could handle. Abruptly all four of their powers flared at once, the multicolored bubbles ballooning to a giant size and mingling together. Time attempted to slow down, speed up, stop, and reverse all at once. The upshot was a small explosion of heat and colorful, blinding light.

Schoolkids ran shrieking to the far side of the schoolyard, or to fetch teachers. Chaos began to brew. Meanwhile Krux and Acronix recovered and slowly picked themselves up, a little battered and very dizzy, but unhurt. The swingset behind them, however, was a smoldering wreck.

* * *

The note that their teacher sent home with them was very stern indeed. Their mother was not pleased.

"I told you when you first inherited these powers, you must never use them to hurt people!" she scolded.

"But they were hurting us first!" protested Krux. "They were scaring Acronix!"

"You don't have to stand up for me!" snapped Acronix. "I started it!"

"I don't care who started it," interrupted their mother. "You both attacked other children and used your powers irresponsibly. You could have been hurt, or you could have seriously hurt someone else. As it is you damaged the schoolyard."

"Who cares? They shouldn't have been bullying us!"

Their mother sighed, trying to figure out how to word this.

"Look, kids. What are people going to think of elemental masters, if they see you acting like that? Do you think they'll trust elementals?"

The twins were sullenly silent.

"You two have a very powerful elemental gift," said their mother. "It's important that you're extra careful with it. I know your powers are exciting, and I know they can seem like very helpful tools—or even weapons. But you have to think about others when you use your powers—other elemental masters, and everyone else too. You need to get better control of your elements and grow more as warriors before you can use your powers at will."

"We'll be more careful, Mama," said Krux grudgingly. Acronix nodded. Their mother sighed again, thinking about all the times they'd said they'd be more careful about making it to class on time too.

"I'm sorry, kids, but you scared a lot of the school staff and parents today. They're saying that you shouldn't be allowed to come to school anymore."

"Sounds good!" said Acronix cheerfully.

"You need to go to school, honey," sighed his mom. She fished in her pocket. "I know you're not going to like this, and I know it seems unfair. But until you've had more training, we'll have to keep you in check. To keep the public from turning on you."

"Keep us in check?" The twins exchanged an uneasy look, then watched their mother suspiciously. She held out two plain metal rings, only a trace of engraving along the outsides.

"You'll have to wear these," she said. "Only while you're in school or out in town. If they don't fit your fingers, you can wear them like pendants on a string."

"Rings?" said Acronix, curiously slotting his pointer into one. "How will these help?"

"They're made of something called Vengestone. They'll block your powers."

Cries of dismay from the twins.

"You can't take our powers!"

"We need them!"

"That's not fair!"

"I know it isn't, I know," said their mom. "But it's to keep you safe as much as anyone else. Don't worry, your powers will come back as soon as you take off the rings. But get used to wearing them for now, okay kittens?"

Krux and Acronix dutifully slipped on the rings, muffling their resentment as best they could. The strange heavy, iron-clad sensation of lacking powers took a lot of getting used to. At the first opportunity they took it out on each other.

"This is all _your_ fault," said Acronix bitterly, just before dinner.

"My fault?! You just said you're the one who started it!"

"But it was _your_ idea to use our powers in the first place!"

"Well, we'd have gotten away with it if _you_ hadn't said to use all four of our powers at once!"

Things escalated rapidly. Their mom soon had to come and pry them off each other.

"That's enough, kittens," she said reproachfully, holding each one by the back of his shirt. "You certainly can't be trusted to have your powers back if you can't even get along with each other."

Acronix only stuck out his tongue at Krux, who folded his arms and looked away. They didn't speak all through dinner and all through the evening.

* * *

They were still not speaking as they got ready for bed that night. Not the longest fight they'd had, but getting up there in the rankings. As he reached to put out the lantern, Krux considered the things he'd heard about not letting the sun go down on your anger or whatever it was. After a moment, though, he tossed the thoughts aside. He didn't feel like making nice just yet. Looking over to Acronix, fortified in his blankets, it was pretty clear he didn't either.

Huffing, Krux blew out the lantern and settled down to sleep.

He had the most awful nightmares, though. Eventually he yanked awake, gasping, to stare into the darkness and pull himself together. Rain drummed on the roof, and a thunderclap rattled the rafters. He shivered a little and drew further under the blankets. The noise must have been what gave him the nightmare.

He rolled onto his side and peered over to Acronix's bed, waiting to see if he would undergo the same gruesome death in his sleep. They had always been used to sharing dreams; they'd been rather startled, actually, when they learned this wasn't something everyone did. Probably a twin thing. Swapped bits of brain before getting born, or something.

Sure enough, after a moment Acronix started, thrashed, and sat bolt upright, crying out. Before he could even recover from the shock of waking up, an inconsiderate crash of thunder scared him back under the blankets. There he stayed.

It was quiet for a bit. Or rather, the only sound was the continuing storm. Lightning flickered outside the windows, alternating with dark snarls from the sky.

Krux waited, listening to the rain. He wasn't over fond of thunderstorms, especially not handling them alone, but he wasn't about to give his twin the satisfaction of caving first. But . . . on the other hand . . . he still hadn't come out from under those blankets . . .

"Acronix," he whispered. "Psst."

The blankets shifted about a bit. Eventually one edge lifted and a pair of eyes peeped from underneath.

"Yeah? . . . "

A particularly vicious clap of thunder drove him back into hiding. Krux winced as well, shivering.

Then a furious, screaming gale of wind came through, and the tree near the house started to scratch hungrily at the roof. This was the last straw; Krux snatched up his blanket and dove for Acronix's side of the room. Acronix was attempting the exact same thing in the opposite direction. They ended up smacking into each other in the middle and going down in a tangle of blankets.

They took a few seconds to growl complaints at each other and nurse bruises, but the next series of scratches on the roof quickly brought them back on task. They picked Krux's bed, further from the scratching sounds, and threw together a secure double-layered nest of all their blankets. Acronix draped one over his head and clutched the edges, listening anxiously to the clawing noises just outside.

"It can't get in," said Krux, trying to sound reassuring. "It's just a tree."

Of course, Acronix already knew that, and Krux was saying it equally for both their benefit. Acronix only nodded silently. They both fidgeted about for a bit, ostensibly trying to get comfortable in the blanket nest, but mostly just maneuvering closer to each other. Krux eventually slipped an arm around his twin, and the fidgeting died down.

For a while they listened to the rain drumming on the roof, the tree scratching, and the occasional roll of thunder.

"What're we gonna do about school?" asked Acronix quietly.

"Hmm?" Krux was already dozing.

"Without our powers. The—the bigger kids."

"Oh." Krux yawned. "Eh. If they bully us again, we'll just take off our rings."

"But we'll get in trouble again . . . "

"So?" said Krux lazily.

Acronix thought about it for a while, and eventually admitted he couldn't think of a good "so." The thought of getting into trouble and not caring was new to him, but he found he rather liked it. He thought about how well they'd done against a group several times their size that day, and liked it even more.

"We probably have the best kind of elemental powers there are, huh?" he said, yawning. Krux didn't reply—he was already asleep.

"Mine are still cooler, though," said Acronix. Nodding approvingly at the lack of contradiction, he burrowed under the blankets and let the rain lull him to sleep as well.


End file.
